Tuesday, 18 June 2013

Gehenna - Black Seared Heart

GEHENNA - Black Seared Heart (HOLYCOUST - CD 1997)

I may be wrong, but somehow I have a feeling that
Gehenna is one of the most underrated Norwegian black metal bands from the old
days. I suppose it doesn’t happen too often when people mention this band as
one of their favourite and the influence and while they may always keep mentioning
the likes of Darkthrone, Immortal, Enslaved, Satyricon, Emperor or even Dimmu
Borgir as well as some other bands spawned in the freezing North back in the
early to mid 90’s, then Gehenna is not praised so much – at least this is how I
feel. And it is a shame, as clearly it was one of the most talented and
original bands, at least in my opinion, and I’m here to say that they have
actually been one of MY favourites, when speaking of the Norwegian black metal
scene. Their “Seen Through the Veils of Darkness” LP is undoubtedly among my
preferred albums, which still gives me chills. Hmm, maybe Gehenna never got so
much attention because they seemed to stay a bit away from all those church
burnings, mafias and stuff like that and they debuted a bit later than the
first Norwegian black metal bands? Or maybe because they happened to change
their style in the end of the 90’s so much? I don’t know. It is only my
impression. I liked this band ever since I first heard it – and it was at the
time of the “Malice” release - and I have a lot of respect for their unique
style. And as a fan and collector I was really happy when somewhere in 1997
Holycoust Records has released a compilation CD with some rare songs of
Gehenna, as it is always great thing to have also demos or other unknown songs
in the collection.

In this case they have provided a CD, which
first of all features the original 1993 demo titled “Black Seared Heart”. This
demo is very rare, as originally it was released in a criminally small quantity
of 100 copies, so I guess if there are any real, original copies of it
circulating anywhere then they must be worth a fortune. The demo was so rare
that a couple of songs from it were also released on 7”EP (by Necromantic
Gallery Productions) under the title “Ancestor of the Darkly Sky”, but this
compilation CD offers “Black Seared Heart” demo in its entirety, so great! Additionally,
“Black Seared Heart” compilation contains a couple of songs, which Gehenna has
recorded in 1994. Back then the band have entered the studio to record a full
length album, but terminated the recordings only two days later and the only
result of this short recording session were three songs, which have been
recorded in raw versions (with no keyboards, only with drums, bass and guitars;
Sarcana, keyboard player, has joined the band few months later and only then some
keyboards and vocals parts have been added to these songs when she already was
in the band). “Black Seared Heart” compilation has only two of these three
songs, as the third one (“Angelwings and Ravenclaws”) has been lost somewhere…
hmm, don’t ask me how can you lose a song, OK? Finally the third part of “Black
Seared Heart” is a song called “Midwinter Forest”, recorded during the
rehearsal of 30th of March 1994 and it supposedly is the only version of this
oldest Gehenna song. OK, as you can already see, “Black Seared Heart” is a very
tasty compilation; and I hope this introduction of what it contains will be
enough to make every Norwegian black metal fan sweat in excitement.

If you know the early full length albums of Gehenna,
then there won’t be any surprises for you, speaking of the quality and style of
the music from this compilation, as clearly this band was developing their own
sound and style ever since the very first recording. And that is something what
only confirms how amazing that scene in Norway was back in the early 90’s! I
mean there were so many killer bands and almost each of them had its own style
and sound. There was nothing like in the Swedish death metal scene for
instance, where 90% of the bands sounded the same, because they all recorded at
the Sunlight and had similar style of music (not that I complain on that, as I
worship the Swedish death metal scene!). But it only proves that whatever
happened in Norway back then was truly unique and special… not only because of
what was happening around the scene, but mainly because of the phenomenal and
immortal music, which those bands have been creating back then.

Anyway, starting with “Black Seared Heart”
demo… first of all, it amazes me how good is the production of it. I mean, if
you listen to some demos of other bands from that time – like of Thorns,
Mysticum, Manes, Enslaved, Emperor or whoever – they often had just terribly
poor production, but for “Black Seared Heart” this is not the case. The sound
here is quite clear, you can actually hear the riffs, keyboards, drums and
everything what the band has recorded. Sure, musically Gehenna was also different
from these bands, which I mentioned here, music wise they have played something
much slower, more atmospheric, with many keyboards parts, melodies… This demo
may be not the most phenomenal material recorded in Norway back in those days,
in many ways it may lack a bit of that evilness and cold, grim mood, which
other bands have developed, but it is exchanged for some catchiness and really
memorable music. I like the title song probably most, but “Angelwings and
Ravenclaws” is also excellent. “Black Seared Heart” is quite aggressive song,
comparing it to the rest, while “Angelwings…” has just an awesome, catchy
riffing and some truly memorable moments – no wonder then that this song was
later re-recorded for the full length CD.

Then we have those two unheard versions of
songs, which ended up on the albums. Well, to be honest they don’t bring
anything new to what we already know, except that these versions are much rawer
and the sound is also harsher (oh, the vocals are especially severe…) but it is
always exciting to listen to “The Witch is Born”, which surely is one of the
best and most memorable songs in the career of Gehenna – at least in my opinion
it is a true anthem, which I remember I even used to cover with my band back in
the 90’s. The second of the two songs – “Night of the Serpents Judgement” – has
been retitled to “Mystical Play of Shadows” on “Seen through the Veils of
Darkness”, so not only some arrangements, but also the entire lyrics for it has
been changed, what makes this version a bit special… Musically this song
reminds me early Dimmu Borgir, from their “Inn I Evighetens Morke” 7”EP and
“For All Tid” era, but that surely is not a complain, as I really like those
two Dimmu releases! And there’s one final song left – called “Midwinter Forest”
– and as I already mentioned it is an unreleased track, recorded during a
rehearsal in 1994 and it is the only existing version of this track (parts of
which were written even before the “Black Seared Heart” demo was recorded).
Well, as an rehearsal track, it doesn’t sound as good as the previous songs,
but it also isn’t terribly bad, you can hear what is it all about without any
problems… and musically it reminds Ancient a bit (who never have been my favourite
Norwegian black metal band), so maybe this is why I don’t like it so much and
treat it more like an interesting addition to the compilation CD that something
truly exciting and worthy… for sure “Midwinter Forest” is the least interesting
song from the whole “Black Seared Heart”.

So, I hope I described the content of this
compilation quite well. I can say that for sure it is a worthy release and a
mandatory album for the fans of Gehenna. The original version of Holycoust
could have been done a bit better, maybe the booklet should have had some
extras like old photographs and original demo artworks, but it still looks
fine. And if you cannot find the original pressing - I have heard that this
compilation was added to one of the “First Spell” album re-releases, so it
should be easily available in one form or another. For me this is a mandatory
release, and I say so not only as a Gehenna fan, but also as a worshipper of
the Norwegian black metal scene.

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This blog is first and foremost to remind the UG metal community my work on PANZERFAUST zine, so I'll try to exhume my old interviews and reviews from that zine.

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